By Mark Murray
THE Western Jets were blown away by a hard-running Oakleigh Chargers outfit to the tune of 94 points at Burbank Oval in their TAC Cup season opener.
The Jets went into the new season with high expectations on Saturday after some promising pre-season form, but were completely outplayed by the Chargers after quarter-time.
The Jets piled on the first three goals of the match to open a handy 18 point buffer, but the tide turned quickly after the first break with Joseph Fieschi, Andrew Otten, Xavier Gotch, Patrick McCarthy and Will De Bruin winning plenty of the footy for the Chargers.
“It definitely wasn’t the start we were after but it happened and we just have to get on with it now,” Jets region manager Shane Sexton said.
“We just have to remain positive and move onto the next one now.
“We started really well and kicked the first three goals and had some opportunities to probably set it up a bit better than what we did.
“They probably got back to level pegging at quarter-time and after that they just ran from everywhere and were just too good for us.
“We just have to put this one down to a bit of a glitch and get the boys back up for our next game after Easter.”
The Jets had winners in bottom-aged players Callan Ward, who provided plenty of drive from half back, and Mitchell Bannister, who won plenty of possession in a back-pocket and through the midfield.
Rhys Prismall was also dangerous around the ground and drifting forward, but he lacked support.
“It’s hard to tell from round one, but they looked very good yesterday so I guess you would expect them to be one of the better sides this year,” Sexton said of the Chargers.
“Something we probably need to get out of our game is that when the opposition applies a bit of pressure we have to be able to hold it up a lot better than what we did.
“It is something we’ll look at and we’ll try and put some pressure back on.
“You don’t expect to kick three goals and just cruise and the good sides will come back at you a bit.
“We need to look at being a bit more resilient and work on trying to stop opposition when they get a bit of a run-on.”
Sexton said he was confident the Jets would bounce back strongly after the Easter break against Northern Knights.
“We’ll prepare really well for this game and hopefully do well,” he said.
“Our practice match form was fine so we just need to get a bit of confidence back.
“We played three games and we probably only had two bad quarters.
“We have been very competitive and we hope to improve from this.”
